


Book XIII - Death

by niawen



Series: Heartblind: Apprentice Erin Canon Run [3]
Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, F/M, Light Whump, Mutual Pining, Novelization, Other, Shippy Gen, Whump, source-appropriate violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27901153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niawen/pseuds/niawen
Summary: Things are still and quiet but that's only an inevitability.  Muriel and Erin cope with the calm before a storm.
Relationships: Apprentice/Muriel
Series: Heartblind: Apprentice Erin Canon Run [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2043058
Kudos: 4





	1. Ashes

Muriel watched the embers die low at the mouth of the cave and he carefully adjusted the dead-weight against him so he could gently prod the coals with the stick, prompting another flare up and a renewed rush of warmth in the tiny cave.

Erin was nestled in his lap, head tilted sideways to rest against his torso and mostly concealed by his cloak. Inanna’s weight was draped over his legs just past that, putting an uncomfortable amount of pressure on his right knee. Muriel smirked a little wryly but there was some affection there too. He’s gently pushed Inanna around while sleeping before- she can get clingy and she’s not as small as she likes to pretend. But removing her would jostle Erin, who was finally asleep.

Muriel hadn’t planned on revealing she had died and been resurrected when they had set camp that night but it had just sort of happened. She had taken the news in stride, all things considered and he was unwillingly impressed with her resilience all over again. Still, there was no denying the stress of the news and she’d spent a few quiet minutes with tears leaking stubbornly out of her eyes after the conversation had petered out. He’d apologized profusely for upsetting her but she simply kept waving him off.

He sighed and wrapped his arms a little more tightly around her torso. He still had no idea how it had come to this, how she had so much trust in him that she’d allowed herself to feel… some degree of affection for him, some desire for closeness. It was alien at best. He didn’t understand it at all and part of him was convinced he was a danger to her. That night she had jostled him awake at that run down old inn during a nightmare was still fresh in his mind… How different would their journey be now if he had reacted in a moment of instinctive, retaliatory violence in his disorienting panic of jolting awake mid-Coliseum flashback? Would she really still trust him? Would she really drop her guard around him enough to let herself think that she wanted him like this? Enough to desire his touch or make those complimentary comments she was so prone to making? He shuddered involuntarily.

“You know-”

He jumped, startled, then cursed himself and flushed magnificently. Erin was watching him with tired but somewhat suspicious eyes from where she was pressed up against his warm body. He frowned tightly but didn’t say anything.

“You’re a lot worse at hiding your emotions than you try to make me think.”

“You really should try and sleep,” he grunted noncommittally. But still he held her and made no move to do otherwise. “You.... on top of everything else… learning about your past. It was probably draining.”

She scratched her head absently before quickly pulling her arm back into the warmth of Muriel’s cloak and strong arms. She cast her eyes towards the dying fire and smirked grimly. “Honestly, it's kind of a relief. Asra… never told me.”

“Nothing? This whole time?”

“He’s evasive,” Erin said with a forced kind of nonchalance and a gentle flush under the mask of freckles running across the bridge of her nose and cheeks. “There was so much to keep me occupied that there was a lot of opportunity for him to dodge questions.”

Muriel grunted, thinking hard. Asra had always been almost frustratingly aloof and evasive when he chose. He was still Muriel’s closest and oldest (and until recently, only) friend but he couldn’t deny the magician’s nature.

Erin was lost in thought for a minute in his lap and he tried not to think about how self-conscious the closeness- her want for closeness- made him.

“But… you were there, Muriel, right?” she was looking up at him, her expression tentative but hopeful.

He nodded slowly, watching her carefully.

“Asra,” she started, a note of self-directed sadness in her voice. “Asra brought me back but it didn’t go the way he expected. Did it? I disappointed him. Somehow. I wasn’t what he wanted.” Her voice trembled and Muriel felt a distinct ache in his chest at the sight of her eyes welling with tears again but he had no idea how to remedy this. “He’s never been unkind to me… he stayed and helped me relearn everything. But he was-” she choked slightly on a sob, her face flushing magnificently. “He was unhappy with me. It radiated off him. It made me so anxious. I’d done something wrong and was a burden to this wonderful person who was so generous with his time and attention. It turned into a full blown psychosis…”

She held her arms more tightly around herself and Muriel felt himself mimic the motion, pulling her in tighter and wishing he was more articulate. There was nothing he could say though. No words were forthcoming and none of his paltry attempts could possibly bring her comfort in the face of what she’d lived through.

She gracelessly wiped her eyes for a second and Inanna lifted her head with a soft grunt. “I don’t know if he thought he was hiding it but he was disappointed with everything I did. Every spell that I couldn’t master, every problem I couldn’t solve, every time I went out in public and then ran back to the shop because I wasn’t brave enough to deal with the market… Everything was so stressful.”

She made a choked noise, struggling to regain control of herself, and Muriel rested his head against hers for a second, compelled to offer comfort as she did to him so often these days.

“Muriel,” she said, after a long minute, her voice baldly pleading and almost desperate. It made his heart hurt. “Muriel, you know Asra better than I do, I think. Why did it turn out this way? Why did he coerce all these people into a ritual to revive me and then… what went wrong? Why isn’t he happy with the results?”

“Asra cares about you,” he grunted. It was true, there was no denying it. “He cared about you before and he cares about you now. You won’t remember but he asks me to check up on you almost every time he leaves.”

“So we’ve met… recently?” Erin says, realization dawning on her round features. “Multiple times?”

Muriel made a noise of agreement. “After the very beginning, when you were a little more self-sufficient… Asra left for longer periods of time. He thought you were healthy enough to not need him around constantly. But you stayed in bed a lot. You didn’t eat regularly. Your eyes were just… kind of dead.”

Erin’s face burned with shame. She knew instantly he wasn’t lying- no one could possibly know what life was like that early into her rehabilitation by random deduction- and the thought of him having seen the languishing depression that had consumed her for the first year or so of her living memory was humiliating- especially compounded by the fact that she’d had no idea or recollection. “Why did he leave me like that? Why didn’t he explain anything?”

“He left because he couldn’t cope with what he’d done… I’m not sure why he didn’t say anything…”

Erin felt suddenly angry. “What couldn’t he cope with!? What was different?”

She could tell by the sudden silence and the way Muriel’s eyes pointedly avoided hers that she was narrowing down the issue at hand. She honed in on his hesitation like a bloodhound. “Please,” she begged in almost a whisper. “Please explain this to me. Make it make sense. I owe so much to Asra but he won’t talk to me. For a long time he was the only link to my past I had… but now you… you know how I died, you know why I’m here now. You must know why Asra doesn’t like me!”

Muriel’s head made a jerky motion and his eyes darted from the fire to the cave entrance and finally to Erin’s bicolor, pleading eyes. He sighed and felt his face redden. “Asra… loved you.”

Erin pulled back slightly, unprepared for that. “Loved?”

Muriel shifted uncomfortably for a long moment, trying to find the words. “It was powerful, instant. You met at a Masquerade. You were a brilliant alchemist and a scholar working with the Palace. I was already outside of Vesuvia by this point, I don’t know all the details, but he fell harder and faster than I’d ever seen him do before. You just… clicked.”

Erin was having trouble breathing, taking all of this in but Muriel took the opportunity to continue with his slightly monotone explanation, his words rushed and his expression uncomfortable.

“By the time the plague came in full force, you were running a clinic with Julian. You were sleeping there a couple hours a night, taking patients constantly. Alone... while Julian worked to deal with Lucio. You worked yourself to the bone. It made you vulnerable. I think Asra suspected and he tried to get you to run away with him and avoid all the death and sickness. You blew up at him for even suggesting it- he told me about before he left. You were committed to healing and you belonged on the front lines, is what you told him. But then, while he was gone, you got sick. You died. And when he came back and found out, he got… desperate. Unhinged, honestly.”

Erin was hanging on his every word. “So he concocted this huge ritual with Lucio, sabotaged it at the last second, and got all of these people- including you- to pay a price to resurrect me? And he’s unhappy with the outcome? What price did he pay?”

Muriel shook his head slowly. “I’m not entirely sure what price he paid but… the deal. It went crooked for him. It brought you back… in body alone.”

She sat up straighter, forcing eye contact and staring straight into Muriel’s conflicted, stormy eyes. “Meaning....?”

Immensely uncomfortable but with nowhere to hide and no way to divert the conversation, Muriel let out a tiny sigh. “Meaning you looked exactly like the alchemist and healer he loved. But you weren’t her any more.” He lifted one large hand to hold over his heart for a second, as though to illustrate the difference Asra must have seen in vessel and heart. “Considering what he went through to get you, I think the revelation broke him for a while.”

Visibly afraid to press further and wincing slightly at the beginning of a migraine, Erin pressed ahead anyway. “How…?’

Muriel bit his lip and looked away. “When was the last time you tried doing alchemy? When you healed me that night we first met, the spell you cast was low-level and basic. It was more than enough for the severity,” he appended quickly. “But that’s not the work of a master.”

Erin gaped at him. True her healing magic was getting better but the complex formulas of alchemy had been unfathomable during her rehabilitation.

“You magic rewiring itself under duress is one thing. But personality wise, Erin now is completely different than Erin then. She was aloof like Asra, calculating I guess. Always had a plan. Everything was like a chess game for her. I didn’t know you very well… I was a hermit, I’d only interacted with you a handful of times. But Asra told me enough. Witty. Intelligent. Charming. Feminine. Read good books. Had good taste in tea…”

Erin laughed but it was strained. “Gods that doesn’t sound like me at all.”

Muriel looked her dead in the eyes, his face serious. “You’re not the same person anymore but it's not your fault. Try,” he paused for a second, trying to think of the right words. “Try not to think too poorly of Asra either. He may still be struggling to come to terms with who you are now, but in another life he loved you so much that he broke magical taboos to try and get you back.”

“I feel bad for him,” Erin admitted slowly. “I really do. Things have gotten easier… more natural between us after a while.”

To her surprise, Muriel chuckled quietly. “It got easier when you altered how you dressed and looked, as stupid as it sounds. It was easier to see your past and present selfs as two different people.”

“Really?”

Muriel nodded. “Before… you had hair to your waist. Kept it in this intricate braid or tied it up and held it with sparkly little accessories. Asra brought you flowers constantly for you to put in your hair. When you took that razor to it… I mean… it's a drastic change.”

Erin was watching him, her eyes widening. “You… did you see that? Were you there and I don’t remember?”

Muriel shook his head quickly. “I came to the shop the day after you had done it, there was still long strands of hair on the floor when you let me in to deliver some food. You looked a little like a boy, hair shorn all the way to your head like that.”

Erin turned redder in the glow of the firelight. “I was depressed. Even then I think I knew I wanted to get away from the expectations of the past…”

“You were very depressed,” Muriel agreed. “I was bringing food by twice a week and you still barely ate. While Asra was gone on the same journey you went down to the docks, got wasted, and dropped a bag of gold in front of some sailors who I was certain were going to try and stab you, and demanded a tattoo.”

“Oh my god you saw that.”

  
Muriel smirked a little grimly. “Yeah. That one I watched the whole time. I was convinced they were going to hurt you.”

“It took hours and hours though,” she suddenly snapped, looking up at Muriel in alarm. “I got there first thing in the morning- the tavern wasn’t even open, I had to buy liquor from the market- and didn’t get home until almost midnight… how long did you…?”

Muriel gave a slight cough and didn’t meet her gaze, pretending to find the far wall incredibly interesting. “Almost seventeen hours.”

“You were there the whole time!?” she gasped.

“I watched. From a distance.”

“The whole time!?” Erin was scandalized by the idea. It was somehow excruciatingly embarrassing to know Muriel had been a silent observer to so much of her life without her knowing.

“I… uh…” he looked suddenly sheepish, color rising in his face and it only highlighted that Erin was mirroring him, still sitting in his lap but extremely aware of the awkwardness. “I actually carried you home that night. I guess the prolonged pain and another few rounds of drinks were too much for you. You could barely stand.”

“Oh my god,” she said in a mortified whisper. “I remember sitting on the shop floor with my arm still oozing ink… I thought I must have blacked out the trek back.”

“You don’t remember because of my spell. I left you there once I was sure you were mostly contained for the night. A few days later, Asra returned and immediately asked me if I had seen what you did.”

“He didn’t blame you did he?”

“No, of course not. I actually think he was delighted. I think he found it exciting and I think he took it as a good sign you were recovering. It had the added benefit of helping him finish grieving the old you, too.” Muriel finished with a thoughtful expression and, still red and still awkward.

Erin pursed her lips and seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. “You’ve been… You’ve been protecting me for years.”

Muriel jumped, having not expected that particular comment. “We didn’t interact very much. I was worried Asra’s involvement with you… I was worried about his sanity after you’d died.... He was my only friend so of course I wanted to help him…”

Erin thought about this for a second but then shook her head. “I wish I remembered. I… I like the time we’ve spent together, even though we’re constantly in danger. I like… you. I like being with you. It kind of hurts to think we could have been friends so much earlier and just… missed the opportunity.”

Muriel was overcome with embarrassment at the honest compliment and the sentiment that someone as selfless (and perhaps naive) as Erin valued his companionship so much. He was flushing magnificently and there was nothing he could do about it. “Things were harder then. I…,” he paused, struggling to find the words. “I like who you are now. I didn’t know you very well before but I think I prefer you now. You’re… earnest. More forthright. Even if you’re way too reckless to be sane.”

Erin didn’t react for a second but then she grinned, averting her eyes shyly after a moment. “We have lost time to make up for then,” she said and her face went soft, almost obscenely so. Muriel could feel warmth radiating off her and the gentle vulnerability on her face made his whole body burn self consciously. “You were my very large, silent protector skulking around in alleys for so long… I really have to pick up the pace if I’m going to be your overprotective battlemage.”

He smirked slightly and, despite the rush of mild embarrassment, tipped his head down to press his lips to her temple a little clumsily. She went dark but didn’t move, and he stayed that way for a long minute wherein his heart fluttered madly like a small bird in a cage. “I really _like_ … who you are now. Even if you have bad taste in company.”

“I do not,” she returned immediately, incensed- like actually irritated with the comment. Muriel was taken aback a little by the sharpness to her tone. “Look at all you did for me when I was a stranger, don’t be obtuse!”

There was a strange course of sheepishness and a powerful fondness in Muriel for a second. “...Even gonna protect me from myself, huh?” he muttered, so quietly that he didn’t really care if she heard him or not. Though it was obvious from her set expression that she had.

“I’ll kick anyone’s ass who hurts my friends,” she snapped back defiantly, though there was a quirk to her lips that gave away the humor she found in the situation.

He seriously doubted that. Powerful offensive magic or not, she was still just over five feet tall, round and stocky… Muriel appreciated their size difference all over again in how small she was in his lap, how completely engulfed in his arms she was like this, wrapped up in his cloak. Embarrassingly enough, he decided he didn’t much mind.

He pulled her in more tightly, his fingers splayed against her warm, soft body and her mismatched eyes widened as he drew very close. “Can… Can I…?”

She swallowed nervously but nodded a little quickly. Muriel couldn’t help but hesitate for a second but his internal monologue was screaming at him to get on with it since he’d already asked and it would be twice as humiliating to back down now. Closing the minute distance a little hastily, he’ pressed his lips up against hers.

He tried to communicate all the things he couldn’t say- he was terrible with words, but he wanted her to know that these last few weeks had been something he imagined unattainable. Yes, they had been fraught with danger. Yes, he’d learned the hard truth about his past. Yes, he had lost his only link to his culture almost as soon as he’d discovered it. And yes these were frankly inconsolable hardships… but he had her. She trusted him. She liked him. She reached out for his hand as they walked together, she kissed him that night under the aurora. He liked her much better now, like this. With him. Hopefully after this conflict was put to rest for good, he thought distractedly as he shyly continued to work his lips against hers, this would still be something afforded to him…


	2. A Rising Tide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erin's barrier does that thing again, only this time she's pretty sure she knows why...

Muriel brought his arm around in a powerful arc, sending his staff crosswise across the heavy abdomen of the massive frost spider towering over him, launching it bodily into a gnarled tree. It curled in on itself before falling still and he let out a sharp breath, the cloud of vapor dissipating quickly in the cold.

His body still felt a little unnaturally stiff handling the staff, but this could be more attributed to his hesitancy to fight and less to his years away from the violence of arena combat. Life in the forest did demand minor self defense sometimes from dangerous beasts but Muriel was good at avoiding territorial animals or scaring them off. He had fully intended to never pick up a weapon again but… things had happened. Some of it for the better. Some of it for the worse.

There was a heavy thudding behind him and he whipped around, snow deep enough to be something of a hindrance. Another huge spider was bearing down on him, forelegs drawn back to attack. A jagged bolt in the vague shape of an arrow screamed out of his periphery, exploding against the gigantic spider in a deluge of aquamarine flames. It let out a strangled, unearthly shriek as it collapsed under its own weight but Muriel was already scanning the woods to his right to try and locate his companion.

They’d gotten separated in the attack and he couldn’t choke down his kneejerk concern for Erin, despite the fact that he couldn’t deny her offensive capabilities really weren’t that bad. She was impulsive, though, and had very little regard for her own safety to match her inexperience. In all, it was a combination that made him very nervous.

There was a loud bark followed by a relieved “Muriel!” as Erin came trudging into view, her bow still in hand, Inanna trotting at her side, apparently unbothered by the deep snow and bitter cold. (Muriel hadn’t divulged this to Erin but he’d asked Inanna to stick near her during any dangerous encounters, just in case.) Her cheeks were flushed deep crimson and there was a new tear in her cloak but she looked otherwise fine.

At her smaller height, the snow was much more of an impediment and she plodded towards him as quickly as she could. Up close she looked fine- though there was a pallor to her face that was unusual but she was quicker to voice her concerns than him. “How many of those things are there?” she asked, disgust plain in her tone. “I took out I think three of them, you took out at least the two from earlier and this one here…”

“Frost Spiders. They swarm in the winter,” Muriel replied flatly, scanning the steep, wooded valley they were effectively bottled-necked in once he was satisfied she was in one piece. Crumbling, snow dusted boulders formed two steep walls on either side of them and the narrow gulch dipped steeply southward for a long ways before opening up to more cover in a thicket of holly and more spindly trees. “Their breeding season is in the fall. By winter the spawn’s ready to feed.”

Erin was usually quick to retort and he was surprised by her noticeable silence for a few protracted seconds. He turned back to face her and suddenly had to choke down a poorly-timed laugh at the look of absolute horror on her face.

“They _swarm_!?” She rubbed her arms absently- though he couldn’t tell if the motion was born of anxiety, cold, or repugnance. “Do you think that was all of them?”

Muriel considered not answering but she should probably know in the interest of caution. “No, they lay hundreds of eggs and these ones were too big to be young. We need to get out of here. The noise and the smell of blood will attract the rest.” She let out a strangled little curse, the pallor intensifying slightly. She bit her lip and nodded as he turned to move ahead, both of them pressing on into the blasting wind and sparse trees.

They barely made it twenty paces before Inanna suddenly halted and lifted her head, ears up and on full alert. Erin and Muriel both froze, looking in the direction the huge wolf was scanning. There was a second of nothing except the wind blowing through the valley until Inanna let out an anxious whine and was echoed shortly thereafter by Erin dropping a five alarm obscenity.

Spiders poured over the rocky wall like an avalanche of too many eyes and legs. Muriel was right, there were hundreds of them and they were moving so fast they’d never be able to outrun them. Inanna whipped towards Muriel, looking for a plan but he was almost as wide eyed as Erin, watching in horror as a very certain, very unpleasant doom surged right at them. Inanna let out a sharper bark and it snapped him out of it… there was nothing to do but run for it. Not that there was any feasible way to outrun the horde but he supposed it was a better shot than just standing around stupidly. He moved to grab Erin but she was already out of range, moving as quick as she could _towards_ the impending disaster, nocking her bow and drawing back another greenish-blue bolt of pure magic.

“Erin!” he shouted in alarm, panic mounting in his tight throat rapidly. “There’s too many, we have to run!”

“There’s no way we’ll make it!” she called back over her shoulder, fear was plain in her voice but it was apparently not enough to keep her from drawing the bow tight and loosing the arrow. It arched and split into many darts and most of them even managed to find targets, but the numbers were against them and he could see the hopelessness of the situation dawning in her tight shoulders as the tide of frost spiderlings cascaded down into the rocky gulch.

“Barrier spell!” he suddenly shouted, stumbling through the snow to get back to her. “Cast a barrier spell!”

Erin wasted a second throwing him a look before she dropped her bow and extended her hands out in front of her. She took a deep breath, braced her stance- Asra’s face flashed across her mind’s eye for a split second, his voice flashing through her. _Calm and unmovable. Fear makes barriers weak, if you don’t center yourself, your barrier will show it._ She pulled in a breath, knowing that their lives were on the line and, right now, they were solely in her hands. She pulled the magic in and then forced it back out, trying to shape it.

The dome that encapsulated them was clear, with an oily sheen to it. It was thin and it shivered like it could pop at any second. Erin felt her heart sink and panic start to rise in her. She shook her head and pushed harder but only set the flimsy spell to distend and wiggle pathetically. Sweat ran down her face, in another couple of seconds they would be overrun…

“What are you _doing_?” Muriel barked, horrified, over the wind and the stampede of a million skittering feet. He was pushing himself to reach her faster, barrelling through the deep snow somewhat gracelessly. “That’s not gonna hold!”

Panic was fully gripping Erin’s heart now, she couldn’t breathe. Her barrier could barely stand under its own weight and her weakness was going to get them all killed- “I can’t…!” she croaked, her voice drowned out under the dull roar, trying to force magic through her hands and into the barrier but it was like trying to push smoke into a cup. “I can’t do it...!”

A thickly muscled arm coiled suddenly around her waist and she felt her feet leave the ground. Muriel was still mid-pivot when she realized he had thrown caution to the wind and intended to try and make a run for it with her deadweight. But the thought had barely registered before it was chased immediately by something electric surging in her, some connection that suddenly snapped into place like a tether. 

Without thinking about it and still hanging from Muriel’s arm like a sack of meal, she flung out her hands and grit her teeth. She heard it before she could see it- a deep resonant noise that vibrated in her guts. All around them the barrier grew more opaque, glowing so brightly that Erin’s eyes watered. The first of the horde met the surface and she let out an alarmed shout as she felt the dome around them flex under the weight. It could still pop, she realized, and she reaffirmed her hold on the barrier, straining under the rapidly compounding onslaught..

Muriel’s arm tightened around her in surprise but he lowered her just a fraction, her short legs hanging above the ground as she kept her arms outstretched in an effort to brace the barrier… but then, as she thought about how rock solid he felt hefting her up with just one arm a thought occurred to her that seemed so suddenly obvious she wanted to smack herself. “Give me your hand!” she shouted over the din as now the shapes of frankly countless, blood-hungry frost spiders could be seen swarming over the shivering bubble.

They were awkwardly positioned and Muriel seemed to not want to put her down, still half convinced they would have to try and run for it but he snapped to action and reached for one of her hands, shifting slightly so that she was more braced in front of his body.

Erin felt it instantly- so much more powerfully than she had that night with Lucio’s ghost, probably because the contact was willing and trust could be a powerful catalyst. The barrier hummed and lit up like a firework display. Then the noise cut so suddenly for a moment Erin thought she might have damaged her hearing…

Inanna whined behind her, breaking the eerie, muffled silence. The barrier was thick and nearly opaque and a crystalline blue like glacial ice. The vague shadows of hundreds of frost spider spawn still moved jerkily over the outside surface but no noise made it in and the barrier was utterly solid, unaffected in any way. Numbly, Muriel lowered her to the ground, staring around at a loss for words. He moved to touch the near wall but Erin squeezed his hand tightly and when he cast her a questioning glance she shook her head.

“Am… I affecting this?” he asked slowly, his brows furrowing as his eyes carefully tracked the faint greenish ripples glowing along the curve of the structure.

Erin was afraid to bring down her other hand and wipe the sweat from her brow but she allowed herself to take a step closer to Muriel, eyes wide as she tried to take the structure in. “Yeah. I’m an idiot for not realizing sooner…”

“How? Why?” He looked legitimately confused. “My magic has always been weak. If Asra hadn’t helped me I don’t think it ever would have awakened on its own… I can’t cast anything so _tangible_.”

“Abjuration magic isn’t usually all that… visible,” Erin answered, looking up at him with a soft smile that was at the same time shy and a little proud. “Yours is specialized in charms but they’re really quite powerful even if there’s not a lot of flashiness… Exactly what someone like me needs when trying to cast defensive magic, honestly. Right now I’m… like a conduit. Your magic, through me, makes this. Which,” she said in a less awed, more casual tone of voice, “is exactly what we needed right now.”

There was another extended second where they could not help but marvel at the barrier dome and the way it seemed to cut them off entirely from the real world. Finally, Erin gave Muriel’s hand a squeeze. “I think I can generate enough power to wipe them out or send them back to their caves when I bring this down,” she explained, leading him back to her position in the center of the perfect circle. “I think the recoil’s going to be massive, though. Brace yourself.” She took up her stance and gave Muriel a chance to get behind her.

To her surprise, he stood next to her, sidefaced so that their hands could stay clasped. She gave a fond half-smirk and looked away, color rising to her cheeks as she adjusted her grip to interlace her fingers with his. “Really though, even a normal barrier can break bones coming down. Be ready.”

He nodded grimly but didn’t say anything else, tracking the scuttling shadows still surging against the barrier like waves beating against the shore.

With a deep breath, Erin extended her senses as far as she could, trying to get a good magical hold on the barrier so that it came down in one neat piece instead of a blast of debris traveling at excessive speeds. She pulled her arm back in, the motion quick and decisive. She could feel the resistance for just an instant before the thick dome trembled and then exploded all around them.

The blast was deafening and the force knocked Erin clear off her feet. She realized in an instant that there was another reason Muriel had positioned himself next to her like that. He ducked his head and was able to hunch over her protectively, pulling her up against him by their tightly gripped hands and throwing his other arm over her. She could feel them both lose balance and the world spun around them wildly for a nauseating instant before they bodily hit a snow drift with a heavy impact that knocked the wind out of her.

It took her a second to react but a large, furry face was sniffing her loudly in another moment followed by a series of wet dog-kisses. “Inanna!” she gasped, sitting upright and throwing an arm around the huge wolf. Erin looked immediately to the narrow gulch and her eyes widened- the barrier had left a perfect crater in the ground, blasted completely clear of rocks and snow, exposing the frozen earth below. A great number of motionless spiders lay scattered all along the perimeter and further, movement towards the top of the rock wall turned out to be the remainder struggling back to the safety of their nest. The damage inflicted by the barrier had been enough and Erin let out a victorious noise.

She turned and found Inanna giving Muriel’s face the same treatment, sniffing and snorting excitedly while Muriel half-heartedly protested and wrestled her back with one arm. She noticed instantly that his face was beet-red and his eyes were determinedly avoiding hers and it took her another moment of gormless staring before she figured out why. 

He was spread out on his back in the snow, his left hand still tightly interlaced with hers and she was by all accounts laying on top of him, one leg thrown over his abdomen and her weight braced on the hand locked with his, pinning it to the cold ground near his face. Her face ignited and she struggled to sit up properly, which still left her straddling his hard stomach and she flailed gracelessly to give him some space. “S-sorry!” And then she felt extra stupid for getting so flustered because she had literally yanked him down to kiss him breathless like two nights ago. His nervous energy made her nervous and now they were both two highly-anxious awkward messes.

“It's fine,” he grunted, still not looking at her and his tan face absolutely _flaming_ for a few extended moments. When they were both back on their feet a second later he managed to face her long enough to give her a shrewd once over. “You were really going to try and shoot your way through a few hundred of those things.” He didn’t phrase it as a question, looking down at Erin with an expression that was at once disapproving but _very grudgingly_ impressed and he wished he’d managed to only get the former across, not wanting to encourage her… foolishness. To his mild irritation, she flapped a dismissive hand in answer.

“Oh. Yeah, there was no way I could cut through all of that. I knew it wasn’t going to solve the problem, I was just hoping it would buy you some time to get away with Inanna.” The carelessness in her tone and expression was staggering and Muriel just watched her, struggling to comprehend the logic. 

“But-” he began, exasperated and she looked immediately closed off.

“If you try to sell me that ‘you’re the important one’ shit again, Muriel, I swear-” Erin said a little fiercely. “That absolutely isn’t true. I was the one that dragged you out here so I’m gonna be the one that takes responsibility for that.”

Muriel rarely argued in general, he was passive by nature, but Erin had a way of setting off his indignance just enough to keep him from being able to close his mouth- which was usually so easy for him. “Getting yourself killed on my account isn’t going to do that,” he grumbled, his tone surly. When she opened her mouth to automatically argue but he managed to keep going before she could interrupt him. “If you die out here you won’t be helping anyone but Lucio. Even if I try to finish what you started by myself, I’m only one person. One who can’t use magic like you and one who spent a lot of their life running away.”

For once Erin seemed to think better of pressing the issue, though she did look as though she wanted to continue. Though it was also clear on her face that she was having trouble formulating a counterargument. She mouthed silently for a second before giving up and shaking her head.

Muriel put a hand on her shoulder awkwardly- a pat that lasted too long and he pulled it away after an embarrassing second or so, reddening again. “I’m not ungrateful… but I’d rather you didn’t… you know. Die. Especially under a wave of spiders.”

Also growing redfaced at the unusual contact, Erin smiled slightly and glanced up at him for a second before looking away, back down the gulch and into the trees. “When you put it like that,” she said jokingly, conceding for now. “But you know… I think that’s why my barrier…”

His brows furrowed thoughtfully. “That’s happened a few times now. Your barrier suddenly gets stronger. Why’s it start out all… soft and weak? You said I had an effect on it but…”

For a second, she looked away and Muriel got the strange sense that she didn’t want to answer, but he waited (the way she did when he struggled with what to say) and eventually her lips pressed into a thoughtful frown. Then she let out a breathless little laugh that was a little self-deprecating. “Ah, you misunderstand… The weak, wobbly version _is_ my barrier. That’s what I can do alone. That night in the forest, I knew Lucio was going to tear right through it. Today, I didn’t even think about casting it until you started shouting because it’s such an unreliable mess I’ve just sort of stopped thinking about it during confrontations.”

Muriel stared at her with a suspiciously incredulous expression, watching the sheepish smile on her face. He knew self deprecation pretty well and he frowned at her subtle deflection. “Wait, so you’re saying…”

“When it does that weird glacial thing where it looks like foot-thick ice? Yeah, that’s your influence,” she said simply, though she looked thoughtful herself.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said slowly, shaking his head. “Runes, I can do. Charms, I can do. My magic is weak, though, and it's definitely not made for that…”

Erin thought about this for a second. “How do you know your magic is weak? Divination is rare and there are a lot of ways to practice that craft. Asra’s a master and I learned the arcana from him but rune-reading is a different beast. And especially rare in these parts.”

Muriel opened and closed his mouth several times, unable to sufficiently come up with an answer. He had _assumed_... because his magic hadn’t spared him his suffering at the hands of Lucio, hadn’t made his life any easier, never used them to fight the way others did… But he also knew that magic demanded a price and was rarely the easy fix-all people imagined it to be.

She ran a hand through her hair, a habitual gesture when she was slightly anxious but the intense expression on her face was softened by her round features. “Your charms are the strongest I’ve ever seen. Asra keeps them all over the shop. He takes them on his journeys. The whole area around your hut is practically sealed off from malicious powers. It kept Lucio out better than a fortress could. Lots of people can make charms, Muriel, it's your abjuration magic that powers them, though. And it's damn strong.” She moved to stand in front of him so she could be sure he was taking in her every word. “A shielding spell is exactly what abjuration is made for.”

“But I couldn’t make that myself,” he protested.

“Right, but I can’t make that thing myself either. My magic is elemental- I can make physical objects, light, force. I can create a barrier, however weak, but you being near me makes it strong.” He was quiet for another second and she went on. “My barrier’s are a joke because when there’s a problem, I want to confront it head on. You’re willing to assess a situation and you’re level headed. You’re strong as hell and pretty stubborn when you want to be. _That’s_ what turns my awful barrier into that impenetrable ice wall.”  
He fidgeted for a moment with the hem of his cloak. “So if you weren’t so… rash, you’d be able  
to cast a barrier that won’t collapse under its own weight?”

It took a second but she let out a chuckle, taking a few steps towards the thicket at the bottom of the gulch, ready to begin their trek towards wherever Morga waited for them. She was pleased to see Muriel fall into step beside her quickly, relieved that whatever had happened to them-- that whatever he’d suffered before and even now here in the wilds-- that he was still so trusting of her, willing to follow her lead (however much she definitely hadn’t earned that). “You sound like Asra. He says that all the time, though he’s usually teasing me with that smug little smirk he gets at the same time. You’re a lot more… serious.”

She laughed when he rolled his eyes with some exasperation. “Asra’s always been good at finding humor in dangerous situations.”

“He probably knew my barriers were hopeless. Good thing we’re stuck together.” 

Muriel let out a loud scoff but he was half-smirking and trying to keep it from growing any wider. Erin felt some of the tension dissipate even as she nearly stumbled over a loose boulder.


End file.
